It is good to be the Empress

Saturday, October 3, 2009

'Someone asked the other day, 'What was your favorite fastfood when you were growing up?' 'All the food was slow.' ' I don't remember going to a restaurant as a child except maybe at Christmas when sister, Audrey would take us shopping and to dinner at a cafe.

We ate all meals at home. Mom cooked casseroles, pasta etc in morning and we had it at dinner time. We sat down together at the small kitchen table after pulling out the fold up chairs. If we didn't like what she put on my plate I was allowed to sit there until I did like it. We would hide food under the table on the ledge and throw it again. You always heard about the starving kids in China. Denny got in trouble with Dean Herron at Westmont for complaining about the food with the China comment. Denny said he would provide the food if the Dean paid the postage.You had to have permission to leave the table.

My mother was very proud of owning her own home. We never wore Levis as they were for farmers. Only the rich set foot on a golf course, traveled out of the country or had a credit card. My mother never had a credit card. My father gave up driving when he got a ticket for a wrong turn and we never had another card.

We played in the neighborhood mainly at Erica, Barbara and Margaret Mauz' house. They had a TV. Conrad was a gardener for the very rich and had green houses full of orchids and ferns. The yard was huge and beautiful. We got in trouble when we played hide and seek in the roses or other gardens. Little League was baseball for boys. No one else played on teams.

I had a used bicycle that weighed probably 50 pounds, and only had one speed, (slow). We didn't have a television in our house until I was in high school. It was, of course, black and white, and the station went off the air at midnight, after playing the national anthem and a poem about God; it came back on the air at about 6 a.m. I remember Howdy Dowdy but mainly we listened to the radio. Mother listened to soap operas like Helen Trent. We listened to the FBI and comedies like Our Miss Brooks.

I was in high school before I tasted my first pizza, it was called 'pizza pie.' When I bit into it, I burned the roof of my mouth and the cheese slid off, swung down, plastered itself against my chin and burned that, too. It's still the best pizza I ever had.

We got a telephone only when I could pay for it with my job at Foster's Freeze. The only phone in the house was in the living room and it was on a party line. Before you could dial, you had to listen and make sure some people you didn't know weren't already using the line.

Milk was delievered to some homes. The Helms Bakery truck came around with expensive items and bread. We got our bread at Safeway. The Union ice truck came around with ice for the ice box but we never got any. We had a cooler cupboard with a metal grate open to the cool air under the house. It was kept pad locked.

We rarely went to the show though neighbors would go to the Tivoli Theater on Santa Monica Blvd. Movie stars kissed with their mouths shut. At least, they did in the movies. There were no movie ratings because all movies were responsibly produced for everyone to enjoy viewing,without profanity or violence or most anything offensive. Our Baptist Church was against movies, dancing, smoking and alcohol.

A soft drink bottle with bottle top with a stopper with a bunch of holes in it sat on the end of the ironing board to 'sprinkle' clothes with because we didn't have steam irons. Mother would starch shirts and when it was time to iron she would sprinkle them with water to help remove the wrinkles.

Head lights dimmer switches were on the car floor. Ignition switches on the dashboard. Heaters mounted on the inside of the fire wall. You used hand signals for cars without turn signals.

Older Than Dirt Quiz : Count all the ones that you remember not the ones you were told about Ratings at the bottom. 1 Blackjack chewing gum. 2. Wax Coke-shaped bottles with colored sugar water. 3. Candy cigarettes. (We were not allowed them.) 4. Soda pop machines that dispensed glass bottles. 5. Coffee shops or diners with tableside juke boxes 6. Home milk delivery in glass bottles with cardboard stoppers, cream at the top. 7. Party lines on the telephone. 8. Newsreels, cartoons and short features before the double feature movies. 9. P.F. Flyers. 10. Butch wax. 11. TV test patterns that came on at night after the last show and were there until TV shows started again in the morning. (there were only 3 channels [if you were fortunate])12. Peashooters. (You will blind someone.) 13. Howdy Doody. 14. 45 RPM records 15. S& H greenstamps. (Audrey gave these to us for our wedding and we got a table and chairs. 16 Hi-fi's. 17. Metal ice trays with lever. 18. Mimeograph paper and dittos. 19. Blue flashbulbs. 20. Packards. 21. Roller skate keys. 22. Cork popguns 23. Drive-ins. 24. Studebakers. 25. Wash tub wringers. Mother boiled the clothes in the washing machine, wringered them to the bluing tub of water, then wringered them to the rinse water. Wring out clothes and hang on the line on Mondays.If you remembered 0-5 = You're still young.If you remembered 6-10 = You are getting older.If you remembered 11-15 = Don 't tell your age.If you remembered 16-25 = You're older than dirt! I might be older than dirt but those memories are some of the best parts of my life. Don 't forget to pass this along!! Especially to all your really OLD friends.

Our houses were not secure and you could break in by any window. We slept with the windows open most of the year.

Monday, August 31, 2009

From Breakpoint - Prison FellowshipRejecting Apathy The Church and American Civilization

Many Christians, once motivated by protecting the sanctity of life, religious freedom, and traditional marriage, seem inconsolable -- as if the fight is over and there's nothing we can do about it.

But embracing this attitude is a certain prescription for disaster.

I received last month a newsletter by Don Reeverts of the Denver Leadership Foundation. In it he gives the following quote, often attributed to an 18th-century Scottish writer:

The average age of the world's great civilizations has been two hundred years. These nations have progressed through the following sequence...from bondage to spiritual faith...from spiritual faith to courage...from courage to liberty...from liberty to abundance...from abundance to selfishness...from selfishness to complacency, from complacency to apathy...from apathy to dependency...from dependency back to bondage. (Check out the Biblical book of Judges for the same progression.)

These are sobering words. This question of where America is in the cycle should be extremely important for Christians. That's because I firmly believe that culture is nothing but religion incarnate -- that when we see a culture losing its moral footing, it's because believers have failed to bring Christian truth to bear in society. We haven't been, as Calvin put it, making the invisible kingdom visible.

So what stage are we in? Reeverts thinks we are entering the stage of apathy. And I hate to say it, but I agree. I am finding growing apathy among believers.

Apathy manifests itself in how people dress, how they talk, how they care for each other -- and how concerned they are about the great issues of the day. It resembles what the Greeks called acedia, a languidness, a torpor, in which we stop caring about anything.

Apathy inevitably leads to dependency. And once we become dependent on Big Brother, we are back in bondage. Can anybody really watch the dramatic growth of governmental power and not be alarmed? For the fact of the matter is that the more government acts as God, the less peopledepend on the one true God.

Your congressmen and senators are home now for summer recess. Have you contacted them?Are you angry about what's happening in this country today? Things like the elimination of the conscience clause for medical professionals, or embryonic stem cell research, or the advance of gay "marriage," or threats to religious liberties, or government making life-and-death decisions in health care?If you're not upset about those things, you've succumbed to apathy already.

I can't imagine anybody sitting at home, comfortably watching us slip into a state of dependency without getting outraged, and then without expressing that outrage.

If we value our liberties, if we believe in the most fundamental principles upon which our civilization is based, then we owe it to our God and to future generations to speak out.

Institutions aren't going to change the course of America; but great movements have changed the course of the nation and will again. And what better network to fuel a movement than the Church? Rejecting apathy and trusting in God, firm in our belief in human dignity and our God-given liberties, the Church can ignite a fire in this country.

Monday, July 6, 2009

Have you read the book by teens for teens,"Do Hard Things"? This article by John Stonestreet says the same thing from an adult point of view. I wish everyone could read this and see the truth of the situation. I largely grew upat age 9 when my father died. Both my husband and I are grateful that we followed these precepts from our youth and it has been of great profit to us. I remember as a teen giving a devotion to our youth group on I Timothy 4:12,13 "Let no one despise your youth, but be an example to the believers in word, in conduct,in love, in spirit,in faith, in purtity." Note that so many Bible heroes were young when they did important things for God. How many examples can you name?

“There was a time, literally, when there were no teenagers.” What Diana West is suggesting in The Death of the Grown-Up: How America’s Arrested Development Threatens Western Civilization will undoubtedly sound ridiculous to thousands of youth pastors, family therapists, and advertising gurus whose livelihoods depend on entertaining, counseling, and selling to teenagers.

Nevertheless, West argues that adolescence didn’t always exist. In fact, it is a quite recent phenomenon. The word “teenager” wasn’t really used until 1941, after all. In virtually every other culture in the history of the world prior to late 20th century Western culture, kids became adults. Not so anymore. They now become teenagers, or, to put it in more sociologically acceptable terms, they become adolescents.

THE CREATION OF THE TEENAGERWhat happened to bring about this new stage in human development? The sexual revolution and political upheavals of the ‘60s are, of course, the most obvious suspects. However, West suggests a number of other things, some earlier than the ‘60s: a generation of disconnected fathers trying to deal with what they experienced during WWII, factories which once produced necessities for war began producing non-necessities for consumption, new marketing engines selling these goods to people who didn’t realize they wanted them, Chubby Checker’s Twist, Elvis’ hips, the Beatles’ hair, automobiles—perhaps more than one—in every home, the growth of Hollywood, and the recognition by the marketing engines of the fortune to be made from this brand new segment of the population.

Today, of course, adolescence is considered a fixed stage of development. We expect students will lose their minds from ages 13 to 18. “Kids will be kids,” we say. Only we aren’t referring to kids anymore, we’re talking about 15-year-olds. In other cultures, “teenagers” were marrying, farming, fighting wars, writing books, and in one case, bearing the Messiah.

ADOLESCENCE AS APEXOne of the complications of adolescence is that this fixed stage of development is not very fixed. Its grip has forcefully expanded beyond teenagers, and in both directions. On the front end, we have “pre-teens” or “tweens,” whose financial potential marketers quickly spotted. On the back end, whereas 18 was once considered the end of adolescence, it is now considered the middle. The National Academy of Sciences now defines adolescence as the stage from the onset of puberty (around 11 or 12) to age 30.

But there’s more. The reach of adolescence is even greater than this. Adolescence has become, and this must not be missed, the goal of our culture. Somewhere along the way, we ceased to be a culture where kids aspire to be adults and became a culture where adults aspire to be kids.

THE MARKS OF AN ADOLESCENT CULTUREWhat are the marks of a culture with a dominant adolescent mindset? Not surprisingly, they are precisely what we have come to expect from adolescents themselves.

Demand for immediate gratification. We want what we want now, and we will not wait or work for it. Spiraling credit card debt, addiction to new technologies, bouncing from church to church, abandoning marriages—the list goes on and on.

Absence of long-term thinking about life and the world. Hand-in-hand with a demand for immediate gratification is a distraction from the real issues that actually matter. Ours is a culture largely ignorant of economic theory, political distinctions, or the rules of logic, but one which is fully up to speed on latest from American Idol.

Motivated by feeling rather than truth. This is a key indicator of a volatile person, and an even more significant indicator of a failing culture. Truth is murdered by pooled and polled ignorance.

Wanting grown-up things without growing up. Ironically, despite our addiction to all things adolescent, we still expect to be treated like adults. “Don’t tell me what to do,” we say. “Every opinion matters” and “Treat me with respect,” we add. Of course, fools actually do not deserve respect and their opinions are, at best, a thorough waste of time and, at worst, dangerous.

Expecting bailouts rather than accepting consequences. Not thinking before acting is a trait of adolescence as is making excuses. Bad mortgage decision? The government should help. Sexual immorality? Birth control, abortion, and HPV vaccines. Falling grades? Reduce standards. Poor behavior? Ritalin will do the trick. And once we accept adolescence as normal, we are then forced to excuse poor behavior. “They’ll grow out of it,” we suggest. A quick look around reveals that “they” are not.

Focusing on appearance rather than depth. Seen in everything from fascination with celebrity to the way presidents and churches are chosen, cultures that choose style over substance quickly become silly cultures. Neil Postman proved this in his classic work Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business. Worse still, silly cultures are easily deceived and destined for tyranny. History proves this. More could be added here, but the point is that sometimes what is normal, well, shouldn’t be. Adolescence is a recent and foolish invention. And, as noted scholar, Richard Weaver taught us, ideas have consequences. Good ideas have good consequences; bad ideas have bad consequences.

THE OPPORTUNITYStill, there is good news. Cultures like ours have a leadership vacuum. Therefore, there is a terrific opportunity for influence from those who produce the leaders, especially if they produce leaders who can think beyond the current cultural shallowness.

How can we do this? I suggest we go after the students themselves, from those intolerant of adolescence to those who seem most susceptible to it.

First, we need to challenge students, rather than coddle them. We aim too low with teenagers. Students do not need more entertainment, whether from the television, the IPod, or the youth group. They need and want to be challenged. We see this every year at our Summit student leadership conferences. At Summit, students endure over 70 hours of lecture and instruction on worldviews, apologetics, culture, and character, and they love it. They thrive when they realize that their faith need not be silly or superficial.

Second, students need a thorough education in worldviews and apologetics. There are three components of this type of education. First, students need to know what they believe. Too many see Christianity as merely a private faith rather than as a robust view of reality that offers a tried and true map for life. Christianity is not a narcissistic self-help system, but truth about all of reality. Second, students need to know what others believe. Non-biblical worldviews are battling for their hearts and minds, as well as for our culture. An isolated faith is an immature faith and often a scared faith. Third, Christians must know why they believe what they believe. Too many Christians cannot answer, and are even afraid of, challenging questions about God, Jesus, the Bible, morality, or truth. When they learn that their faith can be defended, they get excited about defending it.

Third, students need to know that Christianity is not just about what we are against, but what we are for. Proverbs says that without vision, the people “cast off restraint.” One of the main reasons that students are casualties of immorality is that they lack vision. While they may know what they are not supposed to do, they fail to understand what meaning, purpose, and impact following Christ offers. Christian students often get the impression that we are merely saved from, and not to. They miss the "re" part of the salvation words that sprinkle the Scriptures: renew, regenerate, reconcile, redeem, etc. They miss that Christ not only came to save us from death, he came to save us to life--and abundant life at that!

Finally, we need to confront students with, rather than isolate them from, the major cultural battles of our day. Historically, Christians have sought to understand and respond to cultural crises. They understood that these crises were the battlefields for competing worldviews.

THE CHALLENGEUnfortunately, many Christians today are oblivious, apathetic or avoidant of issues like embryo-destructive research, euthanasia, emerging technologies, the arts, film, fashion, legislation, human trafficking, politics, and international relations. In the Garden on the evening before His death, Christ prayed these astounding words for his followers: “Father, do not take them from the world, but protect them from the evil one” (John 17:15). Our prayer and preparation for our students should be no different.

The Church’s approach to students must never embrace adolescence as normal. “Meeting them where they are” is no excuse for leaving them where they are. Students are designed with the capacity, and thus the calling, to think deeply and broadly about their faith and their culture, as well as to champion the Gospel by confronting evil, injustice, and lies. By appealing to God’s design for humanity, rather than this cultural fabrication of adolescence, we may find our ministries more relevant to students than the culture itself.

John Stonestreet is executive director of Summit Ministries, a ministry dedicated to training students in worldview analysis and apologetics so that they will defend and champion the Christian worldview. He is co-author of Making Sense of Your World: A Biblical Worldview. John holds an M.A. in Christian thought from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School and is on the bblical studies faculty at Bryan College (Tenn.). He, his wife Sarah, and three daughters live in Colorado Springs, Colo.--------------------------------------------------------------------------------Articles on the BreakPoint website are the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the opinions of Chuck Colson or Prison Fellowship. Links to outside articles or websites are for informational purposes only and do not necessarily imply endorsement of their content.

My mother and father were great storytellers and I was raised on tales of family “derring do”. I got my Major James Pattillo line finished for the Daughters of the American Revolution. It was fun to add information on Joyce Jane Calliham Scott from the DAR magazine (Jan. 2002) “Revolutionary heroine. District III, South Carolina: Joyce Jane Calliham Scott, riding at night, took news of the Tory smuggling to patriots at the Ninety Six District. Later, in order to discover where her husband’s legendary wealth was hidden; Tarleton's troops repeatedly tortured her. (They roped and pulled her under the Savannah River. Revolutionary War water boarding.) She never betrayed her husband or the other patriots.”

Another interesting bit was a letter written in 1892 by my great, great, great uncle.

Dear Sir:

My father, David Thomas, was born in Edgefield District, S.C., in the year 1775 and died in Louisiana 1849. He was a nephew to Joyce Calliham, the wife of Ready Money Scott, who lived on the Savannah River above Augusta, GA., and had a ferry that is known to this day as Scott's Ferry.

In 1850, I visited among my relatives there and heard much of the family history from old kin’s people who are now dead.

Samuel Scott, better known in that country as Ready Money Scott, was a very thrifty farmer. He got his soubriquet from the fact that he always paid the ready money for what he bought, and would not sell unless the ready money was paid to him. This habit obtained for him the reputation of having money, and when the war broke out between the colonies and Great Britain, he, having cast his lot with the colonies and rendered such services as are usually given by patriots to the cause, this espousal brought upon him and his family much persecution.

For robbery, he was visited from time to time by the Tories and the British. One time they destroyed a field of growing corn by turning their cavalry horses loose in it, while the men plundered the dwelling house and premises.

Falling to find any money, they ripped up with their swords the family featherbeds and gave the feathers to the winds. It is a well authenticated fact that old Ready Money Scott was an intense patriot, and aided the Colonies in their struggle for freedom against Great Britain.

Yours, SAMUEL M. THOMAS

I was interested to see that "Tusculum" the house built by my relative, Rev. John Witherspoon, is for sale according to the July Perservation magazine. Tusculum is named for the Italian summer home of great thinker and leader Cicero. The notice says, “Tusculum, 1773. Built for and named by John Witherspoon, signer of the Declaration of Independence and 6th president of Princeton University, 5 bedroom manor house, 1 mile from downtown, on State and National registers. Renovations and additions to original house in 1998. Caretaker’s cottage, stone barn, out buildings, all restored. Farmland tax assessment. $8,975,000.” Maybe we could get money from the stimulus package to buy it.

Have you ever wondered what happened to the men who signed the Declaration of Independence ? Five signers were captured by the British as traitors, and tortured before they died. Twelve had their homes ransacked and burned. Two lost their sons serving in the Revolutionary Army; another had two sons captured. Nine fought and died from wounds or hardships of the Revolutionary War. They signed and they pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor.

What kind of men were they? Twenty-four were lawyers and jurists. Eleven were merchants, nine were farmers and large plantation owners; men of means, well educated, but they signed the Declaration of Independence knowing full well that the penalty would be death if they were captured.

Carter Braxton of Virginia, a wealthy planter and trader, saw his ships swept from the seas by the British Navy. He sold his home and properties to pay his debts, and died in rags. Thomas McKeam was so hounded by the British that he was forced to move his family almost constantly. He served in the Congress without pay, and his family was kept in hiding. His possessions were taken from him, and poverty was his reward.Vandals or soldiers looted the properties of Dillery, Hall, Clymer,Walton, Gwinnett, Heyward, Rutledge, and Middleton.

At the battle of Yorktown, Thomas Nelson, Jr., noted that the British General Cornwallis had taken over the Nelson home for his headquarters. He quietly urged General George Washington to open fire. The home was destroyed, and Nelson died bankrupt.

Francis Lewis had his home and properties destroyed. The enemy jailed his wife, and she died within a few months. John Hart was driven from his wife's bedside as she was dying. Their 13 children fled for their lives. His fields and his gristmill were laid to waste. For more than a year he lived in forests and caves, returning home to find his wife dead and his children vanished.

Some of us take these liberties so much for granted, but we shouldn't. So, take a few minutes while enjoying your 4th of July holiday and silently thank these patriots.It's not much to ask for the price they paid. REMEMBER THAT FREEDOM IS NEVER FREE!!!!

From John Quincy Adams' oration on July 4th, 1837: "Is it not that, in the chain of human events, the birthday of the nation is indissolubly linked with the birthday of the Savior? That it forms a leading event in the progress of the gospel dispensation? Is it not that the Declaration of Independence first organized the social compact on the foundation of the Redeemer's mission upon earth? That it laid the corner stone of human government upon the first precepts of Christianity, and gave to the world the first irrevocable pledge of the fulfillment of the prophecies, announced directly from Heaven at the birth of the Savior and predicted by the greatest of the Hebrew prophets six hundred years before?"

The Declaration of Independence was approved JULY 4, 1776. John Hancock signed first, saying "the price on my head has just doubled." Benjamin Franklin said "We must hang together or most assuredly we shall hang separately." Of the 56 signers: 17 served in the military; 11 had their homes destroyed; 5 were hunted and captured; Abraham Clark had two sons imprisoned on the British starving ship Jersey; John Witherspoon's son was killed in battle; Francis Lewis' wife was imprisoned and died from the harsh treatment; many, such as Thomas Nelson and Carter Braxton, lost their fortunes; and 9 died during the War. When Samuel Adams signed the Declaration, he said: "We have this day restored the Sovereign to whom all men ought to be obedient. He reigns in heaven and from the rising to the setting of the sun, let His kingdom come."

John Adams said: "I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary Festival. It ought to be commemorated, as the Day of Deliverance, by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty." John Adams continued: "I am well aware of the toil and blood and treasure that it will cost to maintain this Declaration...Yet through all the gloom I can see the rays of ravishing light and glory... Posterity will triumph in that day's transaction, even though we [may regret] it, which I trust in God we shall not."

Happy 4th of July and I pray that America will fall on its knees repent and return to Jesus Christ. God, in His abundant mercy, has been very patient with us all.

Saturday, June 27, 2009

Today Dennis and I have been married for 45 years. What a blessing to have a faithful Godly man for a husband! The news this week has carried the headlines of two men who claim to be redeemed by the blood of Jesus Christ but are now shown to be unfaithful to their wives. What sadness for their families! Faithfulness is a lost virtue in America today.

Neither of us look like the young handsome couple we were in 1964 but the beauty that comes from living for Christ is deeper now. So many in our world are concerned only with the external and spend millions of dollars to conceal the aging process. Inner Beauty is a lost virtue in America today.

I received this email today and it stresses the importance of working on our daily attitudes. In () I have noted the virtues shown in this man's life that I want to continue to grow in mine. I want to praise the Lord for the opportunities and blessings of each day as is my priviledge. "Give thanks to the Lord, for HE is good, HIS love is everlasting." Psalm 126:1

A New Home

A 92-year-old, petite, well-poised and proud man, who is fully dressed each morning by eight o'clock, with his hair fashionably combed and shaved perfectly, even though he is legally blind, moved to a nursing home today. (Dignity) His wife of 70 years recently passed away, making the move necessary. After many hours of waiting patiently in the lobby of the nursing home,(Patience) he smiled sweetly when told his room was ready. (Good cheer)

As he maneuvered his walker to the elevator, I provided a visual description of his tiny room, including the eyelet sheets that had been hung on his window. (Strength)

I love it, he stated with the enthusiasm of an eight-year-old having just been presented with a new puppy. (Hope and optimism)

Mr. Jones, you haven't seen the room; just wait.

That doesn't have anything to do with it, he replied...

Happiness is something you decide on ahead of time. Whether I like my room or not doesn't depend on how the furniture is arranged .. it's how I arrange my mind. I already decided to love it. It's a decision I make every morning when I wake up. I have a choice; I can spend the day in bed recounting the difficulty I have with the parts of my body that no longer work, or get out of bed and be thankful for the ones that do. (Joy and faith)

Each day is a gift, and as long as my eyes open, I'll focus on the new day and all the happy memories I've stored away. Just for this time in my life. (Thankfulness)

Old age is like a bank account. You withdraw from what you've put in.

So, my advice to you would be to deposit a lot of happiness in the bank account of memories! Thank you for your part in filling my Memory bank. (Maturity)

I am still depositing. Remember the five simple rules to be happy:

1. Free your heart from hatred. "Love your neighbor as yourself."Matt. 19:192. Free your mind from worries. "Do not worry about your life." Matt.6:253. Live simply Matt. 6:25 - 34 "Seek first His Kingdom and His righteousness" 334. Give more. "Give and it shall be given to you." Luke 6:38 5. Expect less. Phil. 4:11 "I have learned to be content in any and every situation."

"He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God." Micah 6:8

Saturday, June 6, 2009

I remember making a white apron in Clothing 1 to wear in Home Ecomony 1. It was an easy project and came after making your gym bag both with your name embroidered on them for the teacher to know who you were. The apron was white so it stayed spotless while I learned to cook. I took 3 years of sewing in High School and loved it all the way including tailoring. Sewing certainly was a life saver for me so that I could look like my millionaire Bel Aire peers at West Los Angeles' University High School for pennies - which was all I had to their millions.

My mother and grandmother wore aprons and used them as stated below. There are stories of my great grandmother Mary Ann Maltsberger Jones and her apron. She was the mother of ten children who all lived to be adults. Her husband was paralysed in 1886 and did not work after that accident in his stone quarry. My father was 11 and his older brother was 13 years old when their slavery, as he called it, began. They were sent to work with a rancher who worked them HARD for 12 hours or more a day. The small amount of money they made was sent to their mother to help support the family. Mary Ann took in boarders from the train station across the street and did wash to raise the other resources needed. It was a busy house full of noise for this godly woman. When things got to be too much for her, she would go into the front yard and throw the skirt of the apron over her head to pray and calm her heart.

Mary Ann had a wealthy younger sister who invited her to visit her in West Texas. She took the train for the trip and as she was reboarding the train at the end of the visit her sister confessed that she had been afraid that Mary Ann, as a poor woman with so many children, would prove to be an embrassment to her social standing with her lack of education. Mary Ann had been forced into marriage by her father when she was 14 years old. Her sister asked how Mary Ann had learned to speak so well, with such an impressive vocabulary and knowledge of so many things. Mary Ann quietly responded that her knowledge and vocabulary came from her daily reading of the Bible and her relationship with Christ.

Here is a piece I received on the internet that brought back memories for me.

The History of Aprons

I don't think our kids know what an apron is.

The principal use of Grandma's apron was to protect the dress underneath,because she only had a few,it was easier to wash aprons than dresses and they used less material, but along with that, it served as a potholder for removing hot pans from the oven and stove.

It was wonderful for drying children's tears, and on occasion was even used for cleaning out dirty ears.

From the chicken coop, the apron was used for carrying eggs, fussy chicks, and sometimes half-hatched eggs to be finished in the warming oven.

When company came, those aprons were ideal hiding places for shy kids. And when the weather was cold, grandma wrapped it around her arms. Those big old aprons wiped many a perspiring brow, bent over the hot wood stove.

Chips and kindling wood were brought into the kitchen in that apron. From the garden, it carried all sorts of vegetables. After the peas had been shelled, it carried out the hulls. In the fall, the apron was used to bring in apples that had fallen from the trees.

When unexpected company drove up the road, it was surprising how much furniture that old apron could dust in a matter of seconds.

When dinner was ready, Grandma walked out onto the porch, waved her apron, and the men knew it was time to come in from the fields to dinner.

It will be a long time before someone invents something that will replace that ' old-time apron' that served so many purposes.

REMEMBER:

Grandma used to set her hot baked apple pies on the window sill to cool. Her granddaughters set theirs on the window sill to thaw. They would go crazy now trying to figure out how many germs was on that apron. I don't think I ever caught anything from an Apron.

About Me

Linda is the founding Executive Director of Assist Pregnancy Center. She served in the Pro-Life movement since 1970 when she and Dennis studied with Dr. Frances Schaffer at L'Abri.She was N. M. State President of Right to Life and a delegate to the NTRL Committee. She has spoken on pro-life and Biblical issues in more than 25 states in conferences and nationally on radio and on television.
She has a BA from Westmont College in CA and a MEd from the U of W.
She has educated in Christian and public schools from kindergarten to the U of W and the SUNY - Stony Brook. She has done extensive writing and editing of pro-life publications. Some of her books are available from ChalfontHouse.com. She was VP of Education for Ramah, and taught their Advanced Track for post-abortion counseling. She served as Dir. Ed. & Research - Christian Action Council now called Care Net. She is the wife of Dr. Dennis Perry and the mother of two married daughters, Beth and Lyn. Josh is her dear grandson.
Her main hobby is genealogy and family history for which she has written numerous volumes.